Reviewed by: AV1979 Date: 10/25/2013 Summary: Disappointing Reboot As a fan of the original Young and Dangerous film series, I was unsure what to think until I heard Manfred Wong was writing the script. The reboot is a big disappointment, but Wong isn't to blame...rather, it's something else. The new cast didn't have the charm or chemistry like Ekin Cheng, Jordan Chan, Jerry Lamb, and Michael Tse had...and there is no Chou-Pan in this one. Big Head, who was introduced in Y&D 5 played by Chin Ka-Lok (Daniel Wu in the prequel), is in this one, played by Philp Ng (who also was the film's action director...which were more what you would expect in these gangster films). Him Law looked too robotic in his performance of Chan Ho-Nam. He didn't have that charm Ekin Cheng brought to the role. Oscar Leung's Chicken was not too bad though...but it was more akin to Sam Lee's Chicken in the prequel rather than Jordan Chan's cool Chicken. Jazz Lam was not too bad as Pou-Pan, but he has done his share of Triad-like roles (Shaolin Soccer and The Legendary Tai Fei (he plays Tai Fei's son)). Dominic Ho's Dai Tin-Yee was not given ample screen time and when he did get it, he kinda overacted too much. Individually, the support was good, but together, the chemistry was lacking. Sammy Sum really hammed it up...in a bad way...as Kwan. He definitely wasn't close to Francis Ng's performance and even attempted to look like a poor man's version of the Joker with his hair and eye make up...he was just annoying IMO. The romance between Ho-Nam and rich girl Lorraine (Michelle Hu) seemed more forced because it just didn't have that spark that we saw with Ho-Nam and Smartie in the original series. I was just waiting for his romance to fail, especially because again, Law just acted more like a robot and not natural like Ekin had done. Manfred Wong was someone I always respected when he wrote the original film series, and I was a little excited that he wrote this one. I understood he wanted to up the ante with more sex and violence (a soft-core scene between Winnie Leung and Sum; lots of blood and even a disembowelment), but I can't blame Wong on this one. This is one where we have to blame the new cast...except for Philip Ng, who I thought was great as Big Head, who is a kickboxer and gets some nice stylized fighting in a couple of scenes. So, stick with the original film series, because this is one film that proves that reboots don't always have to be the answer! Reviewer Score: 3